Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has spoken of the need for a 20-goal-a-season striker at the club - but does he need one to win the league?

As shown this season, if your aim is just to get into the Champions League then such players are not particularly important.

Only 46% (26) of Premier League sides to finish in the top four since 2001-02, when four Champions League places were awarded to England, have had a player who scored 20 or more league goals during the campaign.

But the more prolific your top marksman, the higher you are likely to finish.

On average, the top scorer of the side finishing in fourth scores 16.6 league goals in the season.

The top scorer of the side finishing in third averages 17.6 goals, the one in second 20.4 and the one in first 22.3.

Average goals from top scorer by league position, 2001-2015

Having a prolific goalscorer on your team has not always been necessary to win the league.

Just over half of all the Premier League champions since the start of the competition in 1992-93 have had a 20-goal-a-season player, 12 times in 23 seasons.

Only 12 of the 23 Premier League seasons have had champions whose top scorer bagged 20 or more goals, leaving 11 campaigns where the winners' top marksman bagged 19 or fewer goals.

In 1995-96 for instance, United won the league despite no Reds bettering Eric Cantona's tally of 14.

Sir Alex Ferguson's side won the inaugural Premier League in 1992-93 with Mark Hughes as top scorer on 15, while in 2000-01 they won the league with Teddy Sheringham as top scorer on 15.

Arsenal won the league in 1997-98 with Dennis Bergkamp as their top scorer on 16 goals, and Manchester United managed it again in 2006-07 with Cristiano Ronaldo as top scorer on 17.

However, you have to go back seven seasons to 2008-09 for the last time that a team won the league without a player who scored 20 or more league goals in the campaign.

That was once again Manchester United's year, Ronaldo the top scorer on 18.

Since then every side has had a player to have scored 20 or more league goals. So unless United can buck the trend, they will likely need one forward to hit that tally if they are to challenge for the title, the Manchester Evening News reports.